Being Smart

Sometimes, you make dumb decisions.  But just because you make them doesn't mean that you're going to mess up your life.  The decisions might have not been the best, but you can still learn and grow from the decisions you made.  It's important that you know you can do something about it.

Today, I went out for my long run, and my original plan was to go out for an hour and a bit and then come back.  I went out, and kept on going, and by the time I was suppose to go back, it seemed like I could probably find a way that I could go around in a circle.  Bad idea... I only had a banana and a glass of water before I left, and when I decided I would do that, I went out for 3:21:18, running 21.81 miles, which was a 9:13 min/mile pace.  Now I didn't run the whole thing that slow.  What happened in the run was that I was running about 7-8 min/mile pace, and felt pretty good.  When I decided to keep on going, I kept up that pace til I was about 14 miles into the run.  Then I looked at where I needed to be and figured out that at my current pace, I wouldn't be able to make it... especially without water and the proper amounts of energy inside my body.

If you make a dumb decision, you can make the most of it by using your brain.  First of all.  I made a dumb decision by running without eating breakfast and taking water.  I also decided that I'd be running a long run.  Now, if I kept on making dumb decisions, then I would have ended up on the side of the road, dehydrated and without energy.  Knowing the cards I've dealt myself, I needed to make the most of it.  That meant that the last 7 miles would need to be a smart 7 miles.  I chose to walk some of it because I knew I wouldn't be able to make it by forcing myself to go on.  I also decided to continually check my pulse to make sure it wasn't too high so that I would be able to tell if I'm using too much energy from carbs rather than from fat.  I also made sure to breath out with my nose to insure that I wouldn't lose too much water from the water vapor that would come out of my mouth.  Breathing in and out through the nose protects you from losing too much water. (works great in survival situations too!)

People make mistakes... that's a sad given.  However, just know that the mistakes are not your undoing.  Learn from it, rise from it, and make the right decisions to go forward in the right direction.